August 29, 2006

Travel Sketchbook World, Last Part

Carnets de Paris, 7e et 15e arrondissements, Rene Oghia, Equnioxe, 2005. These are two of a series of small books with illustrations of varying quality, part of a series that covers all of France. I have also one for Burgundy and one for Provence. French text.

Voyages en Littoral, i'Ile de Porquerolles, etc, Denis Clavreul et Francine Boillot-Grenon, Equinoxe, 2003. One of a series of sketchbooks celebrating the natural beauty of various regions in France. Clavreul is a gifted artist with a fluid style.

Martha's Vineyard and Other Places, David Hockney, Thames and Hudson, 1985. A facsimile edition of one of Hockney's 1982 sketchbooks. I bought this in London in 1986 and have treasured it ever since.

Delacroix et La Normandie, Musee Nationale Eugene Delacroix, 1993. Catalog from the Delacroix museum in Paris, featuring sketches and also more completed works, from Delacroix's visits to Normandy between 1813 and 1850. His watercolor and gouache seaside sketches are particularly stunning.

Baghdad Journal: an Artist in Occupied Iraq, Steve Mumford, D & Q, 2004? One of the most beautiful books I own. Powerful, painterly ink and watercolor sketches tell the story of the conflict in Iraq in a way that words cannot.

Thanks so much, Zeph, for your recommendations! I will look into those. David Gentleman's Paris is wonderful, too, but the India is stunning! It's out of print and hard to get, but a sweet English friend found a copy and gave it to me for my birthday.

oh! it suddenly hit me that i can add something to the discussion:
i really enjoy the mostly pen and ink drawings in Earl Thollander's Back Roads of New England
and David Yeadon's books (though fewer sketches and more nice prose) particularly Secluded Islands of the Atlantic Coast and his New York's Nooks and Crannies: Unusual Walking Tours in All Five Boroughs was a treasure for me when i was new to the tri-states...though it had fewer sketches.
i also picked up and loved the watercolors in David Gentleman's Britain 20 years ago and still pour over it.